11mo ago

16-year-old killers of transgender teenager in England sentenced for 'sadistic' murder

apnews.com 16-year-old killers of transgender teenager in England sentenced for 'sadistic' murder

The two 16-year-old convicted killers of a transgender teenager in northwest England nearly a year ago have been given minimum sentences of 20 and 22 years.

Justice Amanda Yip lifted the reporting restrictions on naming the killers of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey. They were identified at Manchester Crown Court as Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.

The horrific murder shocked the nation. Ghey was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in broad daylight after being lured to a park in the town of Warrington on Feb. 11, 2023.

Yip handed Ratcliffe and Jenkinson a mandatory life sentence, and ordered them to serve a minimum term of 20 and 22 years, respectively, before they could be eligible for parole. If they had been adults — over the age of 18 — they would have faced much longer minimum terms. They will be transferred to adult prisons when they turn 18. Neither showed no visible reaction on being sentenced.

99 comments

The thing that hit me with sadness most (aside the horrible murder) is that when you see pictures of Brianna, her eyes are full of life and happiness.
And then you see pictures of these two, devoid of any spark. Dead inside.
- Well...those were mugshots taken after their arrests on murder charges... wouldn't it be even more disturbing if they were smiling and cheerful?
  
  Both apparently showed no sympathy during the trial. Denying they did it and accusing the other.
- Thats what conservatism does to people
  
  How...how did you make this about politics... seriously, at 16 kids are not thinking about politics

The irony that next to each other, left to right or right to left, looks like before and after transition shots.
- I was trying to figure out which one was the victim...
  
  The pretty one.

Fuck them
Good to see that they got a life sentence and not the usual "they're minors so they'll do some years in a community" bullshit that happens in my country
- Minimum of only 20 years though before eligible for parole
  
  They're minors. In the UK and most of the developed world, you cannot give life without parole to a minor.
  
  20 years is a looooong time when you're 16. They've lost their entire young adulthood and then some
  
  They'll be on licence for the rest of their lives following that though. The minimum term on a life sentence is just the custodial part.
  
  That's standard in the UK. Our justice system views rehabilitation as the ultimate goal, not punishment. They will serve this as a minimum, but will likely never see life outside of a cell based on their reaction to being sentenced.
  Even after parole, their life will forever be scrutinised by law enforcement and medical examiners to determine their mental state. Anything that doesn't scream "normal member of society" puts them back in jail.

Just so we're clear, this is the endgame of all of the propaganda against trans people. Many are culpable in this.
- Oh most def. The Chris--conservatives will with no regrets murder y'all the moment they can. This was never about sports or bathrooms or dorms. This is about a segment of the population who thinks God wants them to kill the LGBT and said as much in the Bible.
- Based on the evidence presented the murderers didn't have anything against trans people, didn't misgender her or anything like that. She seems to have been selected simply because she was an easy target due to various mental health issues
  
  Oh yea the boy totally had nothing against trans people
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/20/thousands-of-messages-reveal-how-teenagers-plotted-of-brianna-ghey
  The girl never misgendered her, but the boy called her "it" constantly. Continuing the trend of women being way more accepting of us than men.
  
  besides this just being false, her being considered an easy target is still pretty unambiguously influenced by society's unfavourable view of trans folks
  
  It's crazy how people want to believe this statement and will actually willingly believe it and never question it.
  I mean, imagine if a couple white kids killed a black kid for fun. Sure they/their community, their cops, their local journalists might all say it wasn't racist but if you study racism you learn that shit goes deep! You don't have to look at every isolated case as existing in isolation
  
  They wanted to kill a minority, but they called her the right pronoun.
  Surely this cancels it out.

I'm sick and tired of violent extremism and the people profiteering from it being treated as "just another point of view" because that leads to this leads to these crimes being normalized.
It's hard enough being trans without being actively hunted by psychotic overzealous and cruel people. What can individuals possibly do in the face of such societal cruelty?
Something needs to change.

were intelligent
planned for weeks
stabbed with a knife
I know the sadistic part is about enjoyment (probably the planning process too), but ...

I know some people want to pretend jokes are “just jokes”, but this is what one killer said about Brianna:
Also she has a dick lol
Why is that funny? It’s because of comedians like Chapelle that normalize making fun of something like this, when all they’re doing is not confronting why it makes them uncomfortable and punch down on an easy target. The same can be said of comedians making jokes about race, like Larry David and his jokes about Arabs, which can lead to normalizing a lot of the Palestinians are animals type rhetoric and normalize Genocidal policies.

Jeez and they were still teenagers.
No matter their age, they deserve lifetime prison. If they are able to murder at that age, they should be prosecuted as adults as well.

Scarlett Jenkinson and Eddie Ratcliffe.
How come the media never mentions if they are Christian or not? Why hasn't the Pope condemned this act in Latin and English?
- What does the Pope have to do with the Anglican Church? Also what does it matter if they were religious or not?
  
  What does the Pope have to do with the Anglican Church?
  They are all Christians.
  Also what does it matter if they were religious or not?
  Indeed. Makes you wonder why when there is a Muslim or an refugee or an immigrant murderer I hear so much about it. Media is full of stories today about an arrest of a refugee made in a center.
- Only 6% of adults are practicing Christians in the UK. It’s statistically unlikely this has anything to do with religion.
  
  TIL that 6% = 0%
  Now answer my questions. Why didn't the Pope condemn the attack in Latin and English?
- What does that have to do with anything?
  
  it's satire about how if a muslim or an immigrant commits a crime, everyone expects imams or community leaders of that culture to comment publicly or else consider them in support of the crime
  
  Do you believe that Christianity had nothing to do with this?
- Unlikely, but I see your point.
  Why is Richard Dawkins silent on this issue?
  
  Because delightfully bigoted grandpa can't figure out how to tweet since the update.

This is the best summary I could come up with:
Ghey was stabbed with a hunting knife 28 times in her head, neck, chest and back in broad daylight after being lured to a park in the town of Warrington on Feb. 11, 2023.
Yip handed Ratcliffe and Jenkinson a mandatory life sentence, and ordered them to serve a minimum term of 20 and 22 years, respectively, before they could be eligible for parole.
“You both took part in a brutal and planned murder, which was sadistic in nature, and a secondary motivation was hostility to Brianna, because of her transgender identity.”
However, Yip said that after they were found guilty last month, there was a “strong public interest in the full and unrestricted reporting of what is plainly an exceptional case.” Lawyers for the two argued that naming them would have ramifications for their welfare.
“The two appear to have had a deadly influence on each other and turned what may have started out as dark fantasies about murder into a reality,” Crown prosecutor Nicola Wyn Williams said outside the courthouse.
“I have moments where I feel sorry for them because they have also ruined their own lives, but I have to remember that they felt no empathy for Brianna when they left her bleeding to death after their premeditated and vicious attack, which was carried out not because Brianna had done anything wrong, but just because one hated trans people and the other thought it would be fun,” her mother Esther Ghey said in a statement that was read to the court.
The original article contains 703 words, the summary contains 254 words. Saved 64%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

Is there such a thing as a “heavenly murder”? I thought all murder was bad. Seems odd trying to demonize murder more than it already would be. Like, would it have been better if they were crucified? Yikes.
- The lynching of Mussolini was a pretty good murder. Same with the English pedophile prince the IRA murdered as well.
  
  Hmmm. Food for thought.
- A bit confused, are you reacting to sadistic? That word doesn't mean evil, it means enjoying giving pain to others. There are murders that aren't as sadistic, as they could try to poison someone in sleep etc, giving no pain.
  The wording is suggesting they very much enjoyed the process of committing the murder, making it more painful on purpose.
  
  TIL I cannot read properly.

FUCK religion
- Absolutely. But what does that have to do with this case? Honestly asking, the article didn't say anything about the motive besides an interest jn violence and serial-killers.
  
  I think a lot of Americans, at least in this thread feel like this would be linked with Christian wackos. In Europe we have Christian wackos but they are not the same as the ones you have and are far fewer. It's much more likely that people who hate on a minority are under educated and/or poor. It's also much less of a sides thing, we don't have the Christian wackos (GOP) vs "the rest". Most countries have some sort of proportional representation, so there are Christians in all groups, the Christian wackos are more dilute. That's not to say that they are non existant more that you can't, for example, guess that these people were religious and probably be right like you might in the US.
- I dunno if religion is strictly to blame. The assumption is that the source of bigotry towards trans people is religion but that hasn't jived with my experiences. A lot of it comes more from people framing us as a logistical or social "problem" that is being encouraged rather than " solved" by the current model of care that places it's focus on the ultimate well-being of the individual. A lot of that is secular in source.
  People will find any manner of sources of justification to reinforce their "ick" response. Science (or a limited understanding of surface level science) and "common sense" is often more the rhetoric that gets splashed around and are often the most brazen objectors to my identity. The "you'll burn in hell" types are actually decently rare by comparison... Generally heartbreaking to hear of don't get me wrong but only a fraction of the whole problem.

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